Roger Corman

Ever since the early 1950s, famed indie producer and sometime director Roger Corman churned out hundreds of low-budget genre flicks - many of which were suspect for both artistry and taste - while rev...
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TriStar
Nineties fashion icon, home wrecker, Robert Rodriguez's muse and overall badass, Rose McGowan was ultimate bad girl of every cult film, horror movie and strangely enough, WB sitcom. Before Dita Von Tease slapped on her first pastie, McGowan was strutting along the MTV VMA Awards' red carpet wearing nothing but a chain link fence. She was the antithesis of Drew Barrymore's flower power vibes and we loved her for it. When the news of a Charmed reboot went around (in which McGowan starred as one of the witchy sisters) McGowan's response was " lame lame lame lamertons," further proving once more her refreshing attitude towards Hollywood. Despite her recent "facial transformations," this Charmed-inspired nostalgia had us thinking about McGowan's unusual body of work and what's she up to these days — besides getting married and showing up in a cape.
The Doom Generation (1995)
As part of the teen apocalypse trilogy from queer film auteur Gregg Araki, we first see the dark appeal of McGowan. Here she is playing a teenage speed freak on a road trip filled with violence, threesomes and one killer bob. It's a look that came to define her, giving Uma Thurman a run for her money.
Scream (1996)
McGowan traded in her pin-up dark locks to play a ditsy blonde named Tatum. While she doesn't get much screen time in the film, neither do most of the victims, and at least her death scene was memorable, making us terrified of garage doors for at least another ten years.
Devil In The Flesh (1998)
The nineties seemed to have a glut of movies and straight to tape releases about evil, young women whose seduction attempts ruin the lives of others and Devil in the Flesh is no exception. Not even her Christian fundamentalist grandma can stop McGowan's lusty attempts to get her high school English teacher into bed. This movie got a lot of airplay on late-night cable networks and sleepovers filled with impressionable young girls.
Jawbreaker (1999)
This dark comedy featured the role Rose was born to play and also starred the perpetual chick flick sidekick, Judy Greer. In the days of pre-bullying campaigns, the most popular clique in high school accidently offs the prom queen with a jawbreaker candy. Filled with satire, sweater sets and a sweet soundtrack, it was some of Rose's best work.
Charmed (2001-06)
To be honest, we were initially skeptical when they killed off Prue (spoiler alert!) played by Shannen Doherty and brought McGowan in to play the long-lost sister, Paige, in season 3. But while her fellow witchy sisters were being overly dramatic about boys, Paige got to do her own thing and bring the fun back into the show. As the longest running hour-long television series featuring all female leads, Charmed is practicaly a feminist milestone in television. (Sidenote: Daryl from Walking Dead was on Charmed?)
Planet Terror (2007)
Serial teen dramas always seemed an odd fit for McGowan. It was B-movie territory with plenty of camp like the double feature, Grindhouse, where she truly thrived. An homage to the exploitation films of the '70s made by Roger Corman, McGowan appeared in both Death Proof and Planet Terror, but it was in Robert Rodriguez's zombie romp where she left the strongest impression — playing a stripper named Cherry who hunts down zombies with a machine gun for a leg. This lady knows how to pick her parts.
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The brother and sister team behind the James Bond franchise are to be honoured with the 2014 David O. Selznick Achievement Award at the Producers Guild Awards in January (14). Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli will join the likes of movie icons Stanley Kramer, Saul Zaentz, Clint Eastwood, Billy Wilder, Brian Grazer, Jerry Bruckheimer, Roger Corman, Steven Spielberg and Laura Ziskin, who have previously picked up the prestigious prize.
Announcing the news on Wednesday (30Oct13), PGA Awards co-chairs Lori McCreary and Michael De Luca released a joint statement that read: "Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli are the driving force behind one of the most cherished franchises in the history of film. Thanks to the consistency and steadfastness of their creative vision, generations of moviegoers have been able to share the adventures of one of our iconic heroes. We look forward to their continuing to bring thrilling exploits and cinematic masterpieces to audiences worldwide, and we are delighted to honor them with this year's David O. Selznick Achievement Award."

FOX
The new sit-com Dads premiered last Tuesday and it had gotten plenty of negative press before it even aired. People were up in arms about stereotypes: an Asian woman was asked to dress up in a Sailor Moon outfit, for one. The thing is, I'm not sure that it's warranted.
This is Seth MacFarlane (executive producer of Dads) we're talking about here. This is the guy who skewers EVERYONE on Family Guy. It's just a little more jarring to see it done with an actual live person instead of an animated one. People might be getting just a little too-PC here. Take deep breaths, folks. There. We feel a bit better, don't we?
I grew up in a time when All In The Family was on the air. Archie Bunker would have taken one look at this show and snorted, "Keep on keepin' on, guys." As the years have gone by, I'm just finding things to be more and more hypersensitive in terms of political correctness. They would have turned Bunker into a softer, kinder person on a show today.
Giovanni Ribisi is a great actor who deserves to have a strong run on a good show. MacFarlane is a creative genius who is not afraid to offend and the other Seth (Green)...well, let's just say that I like his work on Robot Chicken more, but I'll tolerate him on here. Martin Mull has also been enjoyable to watch, and Peter Riegert was the star of both Animal House and Local Hero, two of the best movies ever, so he gets a pass for life.
The show tried to actually turn the bad press into a positive, with ads showing people who had seen it saying, "Ignore the reviews!" We'll see if this all leads to a quick hook, like the live-action The Tick or the even more quickly yanked How to Be A Gentleman, or it eventually settling down somewhat like Family Guy or American Dad!. Heck, even if it does fail, MacFarlane's got his live-action The Flintstones to fall back on. I wonder if he'll turn Dino into a farting dinosaur...
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Rush treats its Formula 1 racing subjects James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) and Niki Lauda (Daniel Brühl) like gods, no doubt. But it's Olivia Wilde who makes the best entrance in the film as Suzy Miller, a British supermodel who finds Hunt and his throbbing engine attractive. In the video above we caught up with Wilde at the Toronto Film Festival about her role as Miller and why she thinks we all seem to find the '70s so romantic these days. We also asked that question of Ron Howard, for whom the answer seems pretty obvious: the '70s were a romantic time for him, as Happy Days was the #1 TV show in the world and he was just getting his start behind the camera directing Grand Theft Auto for Roger Corman, another movie about vehicular destruction. Is Rush a full-circle moment for him then? Watch below to find out.
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The secret behind most television and film locations is that they don't exist in real life. All those Central Perks, Paddy's Pubs and [insert New York street here] live on a Hollywood back lot or set. From wholesome sitcoms to dramatic noirs, each story can benefit from a good old fashioned bar scene — a local watering hole where characters can act up, commiserate or drown in their misery. Lucky for us, some of these storied drinking establishments are real locations where you can down a pint of your own. Check out our list of our favorite watering holes immortalized on screen. We're still reeling from the fact we'll never get to visit the Peach Pit After Dark.
GALLERY: 10 TV &amp; Film Bars Made Famous
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More:Autobiographical Films That Keep It RealHow Roger Corman Helped Invent Modern HollywoodAre TV Antiheroes on the Way Out?
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Director Quentin Tarantino is set to play B-movie icon Roger Corman in a film biopic, according to a UK report. The Django Unchained filmmaker has signed on to lead the cast in The Man with the Kaleidoscope Eyes, according to the Daily Telegraph.
The movie will tell the story behind Corman's controversial drug drama The Trip.
Corman says, "It's the story of how I made The Trip in the 1960s about LSD. It starred Jack Nicholson in one of his first roles and I took LSD so I knew what it was all about.
"It was very controversial but it was the only American picture invited to the Cannes Film Festival that year. I have a cameo role in the movie about it, playing the executive who didn't want me to make the film."

SXWS
Every day seems to bring news of another biopic film in the works. What can we say; audiences can't get enough of famous dead celebrities — and presidents, for that matter. While J.D Salinger might roll over his in grave over the latest Salinger documentary, the autobiographical film puts the power and story into the hands of the filmmaker with deeply personal results that blend fact with fiction imperceptibly. Here's a sampling of some memoir-cum-movie picks.
Short Term 12
Screenwriter and director Destin Cretton took his time spent working at a foster care facility and turned it into one of the most moving films of this year. His first-hand experience shapes the film and prevents it from veering into after-school special territory, while making the audience feel like they experienced it with him.
50/50
When faced with a grim diagnosis such as spinal cancer, it helps to have Seth Rogen as your best friend to help you cope through comedy. After being diagnosed at the age of 24, comedy writer Will Reiser wrote a screenplay with Rogen about what happened to their friendship after the diagnosis and all the awkward interactions that illness can bring.
Tarnation
Jonathan Caouette made indie film history when he made his autobiographical documentary for only $218.32. Then again, most of the film is made up of family movies and personal footage from age 11 and up. While it may not be familiar to a large audience, Caouette's story is equally troubling as it is fascinating — thanks to his manic mother and schizophrenic storytelling.
Almost Famous
This movie just further proved that none of us would ever be as cool as Cameron Crowe. At the ripe age of 16, he finagled a job reporting for Rolling Stone, toured with the Allman Brothers Band, lost his virginity to three groupies AND made a highly successful movie out of it. Also, rest assured; Penny Lane is real.
Tiny Furniture
Lena Dunham's commitment to rooting her HBO series Girls in reality is well documented; as anyone who's seen the Q-tip episode can attest. Before she mined her real life experiences of gay ex-boyfriends and British ex-pat artists as best friends, her first feature laid the groundwork for all the creative-nonfiction that was to follow. If it's hard to separate Dunham from her onscreen personas, than that means her job is done.
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Chris Nashawaty
Who's the one person who connects such different Hollywood artists as Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, James Cameron, Ron Howard, and Jack Nicholson? The man, the legend, Roger Corman. In his new book Crab Monsters, Teenage Cavemen, and Candy Stripe Nurses, Chris Nashawaty presents on oral history of Corman's career told by the B-movie maestro himself and also by the many marquee names who got their start in the business working on his fast-pace, low-budget productions. But it's also something more. It includes in-depth aesthetic appreciations of ten of Corman's movies, which, taken together, make a compelling case for Corman as an artist. Nashawaty's book, available now from Amazon and Barnes &amp; Noble, started as an article in 2009 for Entertainment Weekly, where he's a film critic. (Full Disclosure: Nashawaty was a colleague of mine when I worked at EW.) That article was pegged to Corman receiving a lifetime achievement Academy Award. "I'd interviewed him various times over the years, and he's always been a good interview," Nashawaty says. "He knows how to tell a story, and he's always got a quote handy. But with this book project I got to sit down with him in person and spend some real time with him and ask him about the whole course of his career." Nashawaty tells us how Corman helped create modern Hollywood.
Hollywood.com: How did you first discover Roger Corman and become a fan? Chris Nashawaty: Well, look, when you tell people that you’re a film critic they expect for you to say you grew up on classy movies and Oscar-winning movies, and the fact is I grew up watching monster movies and Piranha and all sorts of other movies that your parents don’t want you to watch. Roger Corman was a name I just kept recognizing in the credits and it wasn’t until I started working at Entertainment Weekly that I started to dig a little deeper and realized that there are 400 of these movies that he’s attached to. When you discover a great director like Stanley Kubrick and you say “I’m going to watch every Stanley Kubrick movie!” that’s only going to take you 10 movies and then you’re done, but Corman is the gift that keeps on giving.
HW: You really dive in deep to give an aesthetic appreciation of his movies, which is unique because often the artistic value of his movies is ignored. He’s thought of more as a mogul or a producer. Do you think he’s generally neglected as an artist? CN:He’s very much overlooked as a director. I think people focus too much on his drive-in movies or exploitation movies — or only focus on the people he mentored — and don’t think about him as a film stylist. And he made some really good movies. Sure, he started off making some disposable, quickie, cheap drive-in movies about atomic monsters, and those are fine. Some of them are even very good. But it wasn’t until the ‘60s that he began to find his voice and develop a style, particularly in his Edgar Allen Poe adaptations. He directed most of them beginning with House of Usher in 1960 and they’re very atmospheric, much like the films Hammer was making in England at the time. They’re Gothic horror movies, they’re moody and colorful, in large part because he assembled an incredible crew. Nicolas Roeg is the DP on The Tomb of Ligeia. So to break up the oral history of his life with all the racy stories, I picked two of his movies per decade and wrote an essay about each. They’re movies that speak to me personally, like Masque of the Red Death, Attack of the Crab Monsters, and Boxcar Bertha.
He also made this movie in 1962 called The Intruder starring William Shatner that was way ahead of its time. It was about segregation in the South. It was a very personal film for Corman and really well made too. Shatner plays a rabble-rousing racist who goes to a Southern town and whips the locals into a frenzy about integration in the schools. It’s a very progressive film about a hot topic that the Hollywood studios wouldn’t even have touched until another five years with In the Heat of the Night and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, and even then not very forcefully. But this is a movie that’s very explosive. Ironically, it’s his most personal film and the only one he lost money on in his career.
HW: Do you have a particular favorite of his movies? CN: It's probably a tie. There's Masque of the Red Death, which is my favorite of his Poe movies. It’s just so twisted and gorgeous, it’s like a Bergman film made into an exploitation horror movie. It’s great. And the other one is probably the first Corman movie I ever saw, which is Piranha. I remember seeing that in the theater when I was really young, I don’t know how or why my parents thought it was a good idea to take me to see a movie called Piranha. But they did, God bless them, and that movie has just always stuck with me. It was Joe Dante’s first movie, and it had a script by John Sayles. It’s a great Jaws ripoff about killer fish turning people into mincemeat.
HW: That seems to be a very sore point for him, that he lost money on The Intruder in particular. CN: Yeah, he mortgaged his house to make that movie. It was that personal to him. And the fact that it wasn’t a success really stung him, deeply. If it had been a success, it’s interesting to think what kind of films he might have made afterward. But it taught him a lesson that maybe this whole personal filmmaking thing wasn’t necessarily something that was going to work for him. Which isn’t to say that his subsequent movies aren’t personal — they are — but he never tried to say something in the same way that he did in that movie again.
HW: You make the argument that he was always ahead of the curve — certainly on race relations as in The Intruder — but also when it came to recognizing the burgeoning youth market. CN: You know the teenager is a very ‘50s concept. The whole idea of young kids being able to spend money and go to the drive-ins, that was something that didn’t exist until the ‘50s and I don’t think Hollywood really recognized them as a real lucrative market. But Corman did. Some of the safer movies that were being aimed at teens at the time, the Beach Party/Beach Blanket Bingo movies, they were fun and campy but they weren’t movies that teenagers necessarily wanted to see…they weren’t about rebellion really. But Corman recognized there was a whole demographic that was being ignored. He saw that, pounced on it, and made biker movies like The Wild Angels and just movies that were showing what was going on in society before anyone else was.
HW: Now, fifty years later, so much of Hollywood filmmaking as a whole is geared toward teenagers. People often credit Jaws and Star Wars for creating youth-oriented blockbuster culture, but do you think Corman deserves his share of recognition for helping create modern Hollywood? CN: I do, yeah, in a lot of ways. And not just that one. There are several different moments where he recognized what was going on faster than the slower-on-the-uptake studios did. One of them was noticing there was an underserved teen market for movies. Another was much later in the ‘80s, when the country was being overrun by videostores, the VHS market was not one the studios exploited right away. It was Corman, who’d been sort of squeezed out of making movies who rejuvenated his business by recognizing there was this VHS market. He made these straight-to-video movies because he knew mom-and-pop video shops were hungry for product. So he’d make straight-to-video movies and put the most lurid, garish, sexy cover he could put on them, with the movie being almost an afterthought, and they’d sell like hotcakes.
Chris Nashawaty
HW: Looking at all the great Corman posters from the ‘50s, ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s featured in your book, it hits home how much the art of movie posters seems to have been lost. CN: I agree. He didn’t have budgets and he didn’t have stars so all he really had to sell a movie was a great poster. In a way it was the purest form of advertising you can imagine: you make a great poster and you slap an incredible tagline on it. My favorite is for Angels Hard As They Come, from 1971, and it’s a biker movie starring Scott Glenn and Gary Busey. The tagline is “Big men with throbbing machines and the girls who take them on.” I mean, that’s a great come on. It’s total Barnum &amp; Bailey “Sell! Sell! Sell!” He was just a master at making posters and trailers that were in a way better than the movies themselves.
HW: Sometimes the alumni of Corman University speak about him with some snark, but generally there seems to be real affection there. Why do you think that is? CN: Once these people went on to have legitimate careers they looked back on their films for Corman as their salad days. It was a great time — they were young, they weren’t getting paid a lot of money, but they got to make a movie. I think we forget how hard, and how rare, that is. You had to work your way up the ladder and studios were closed shops to a lot of people. Corman took the best and brightest out of the film schools and said, “Hey, I’m going to exploit you, I’m going to pay you nothing, I’m going to work you to the bone, but I’m going to give you the shot to make a movie.” And I think a lot of those people who went on to work for big studios realized that they didn’t know how good they had it when they were making movies for Roger Corman because he didn’t give them endless notes or micromanage what they were doing.
HW: You also argue that Corman is the single greatest connecting thread between Old Hollywood and New Hollywood. CN: I can’t think of anyone else who has had the same sort of longevity and is as much of a throughline of the past 60 years of Hollywood. Corman may not be a household name, but he is probably the least known, most influential figure in the last half century of Hollywood. And he’s still making movies today for Syfy. Nobody else has had the reach or impact that he’s had. Just look at the famous people who got their starts in his films, everyone from Jack Nicholson to Scorsese to James Cameron to Coppola, if you take all of those people out of the history of Hollywood, if Corman had not given them their break, the movie industry as we know it today would not exist.
Chris Nashawaty
HW: And he created an independent model of film production that anticipated the independent film revolution by decades. CN: Corman was really the only one I can think of, maybe more recently Miramax, who gave the major studios a run for their money. Because there had been poverty row independent studios since the start of Hollywood, but they could come and go. Between the first company he worked for, American International Pictures, and then his own company New World Pictures, he streamlined and refined what independent filmmaking could be. And I don’t think he gets enough credit for that.
HW: Do you think it would be possible for there to be a Roger Corman today? CN: I don’t think it’s possible for there to be a Roger Corman today because, in a way, anybody can make a movie now. And a lot of people who shouldn’t be making movies are now, because it’s so easy. You can make a movie with your iPhone. But Corman is a singular example of someone who had the genius to make movies that looked like real movies and have them make money. I don’t think you can make the quantity and the quality of movies that he made today.
HW: Do you think Corman will like your book? CN: I think so, because all of the people I interviewed offer up their love letters to him in a way, even though he comes in for some gentle ribbing about how cheap he was. I think he’s treated fairly, though, and his career is celebrated. My favorite quote in the whole book is in the introduction, and it’s from Ron Howard when he was making his first movie as a director, for Corman, called Grand Theft Auto. Corman was very tight on the budget with him, and Ron Howard needed some more extras for which Corman wouldn’t pony up any more money. So Ron Howard was despondent, but Corman walked up to him and said, “Ron, know this. If you do a good job for me on this picture, you’ll never have to work for me again.” Sure, Howard’s recollection of that pokes fun at him a bit, but the underlying message was “I’m giving you a shot and if you do a good job you’ll be able to graduate beyond me.” It was up to you to make something of yourself, to show what you’ve got.
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Twenty-five years ago, the world was introduced to a charming supernatural villain with impeccable fashion sense; truly the ghost with the most. Don’t remember his name? We’ll give you a hint. Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice…just for good measure, we’re going to stop right there.
So many aspects of Beetlejuice have become iconic, and not the least of those is the direction and visual signature of Tim Burton. One can hardly imagine Beetlejuice without Burton’s influence, but the fact of the matter is that Burton wasn’t the first choice to direct the film.
It happens quite a bit in Hollywood; deals are made and deals fall through. A studio’s first choice to helm a picture isn’t always the best choice, nor does it pan out. So who was Beetlejuice’s original director? What other horror properties experienced a change in the director’s chair prior to release?
RELATED: Tim Burton's Big Fish Musical: Hear the First Track
1,2, Beetlejuice Is Coming For You
Prior to Tim Burton signing on to direct Beetlejuice, the studio was looking at someone who’d helmed far more intense horror titles up to that point. That’s right, Mr. Nightmare on Elm Street himself, Wes Craven was originally attached to direct. It’s hard to contemplate what a Craven Beetlejuice would have looked like, but considering an original draft of the script was far more horror-centric, with the titular character portrayed as a winged reptilian demon, one can see how Craven might have been a suitable candidate. If nothing else, Beetlejuice would’ve said “b**ch” a fair amount more.
Never Let Me Howl
The 2010 reboot of The Wolfman couldn’t have suffered more setbacks if they were actually only able to shoot during full moons. It was slated for release in 2007, but a number of problems and a change in director mid-way through kept it out of theaters until 2010. Though Joe Johnston is credited on the poster, it was originally Mark Romanek who landed the gig. Romanek made a big splash with his independent sci-fi film Never Let Me Go, but after butting heads with Universal over the budget, he had no problem letting The Wolfman go. Among its many other production woes, The Wolfman replaced Beetlejuicecomposer Danny Elfman’s entire score at the last minute.
Life Almost Found A Way
Jurassic Park doesn’t really qualify as a horror film, and that was mostly because director Steven Spielberg wanted the movie to be an event the whole family could share. That’s not to say it didn’t give some of us younger viewers nightmares when it was first released, but given who came close to landing the job, Jurassic Park could qualify as a Disney film by comparison. It turns out James Cameron also had his eyes on the rights to Michael Crichton’s novel, but Spielberg got there first. Cameron mentioned that his version would have been much, much nastier. Given some of the things that happen in the book, that wouldn’t have been terribly difficult. The ironic thing here is that Cameron’s first feature film directing gig was Piranha II: The Spawning, on which he was a replacement for Miller Drake.
RELATED: 'Jurassic Park 4' Has Found a Director
In Space, No One Can Hear You Cut Corners
Piranha II producer Roger Corman, is a legend in the film industry; for better or worse. On the one hand, he launched the careers of several highly notable artists including Cameron, Martin Scorsese, Jack Nicholson, and Francis Ford Coppola. On the other hand, he had a tendency toward focusing more on the bottom line than on artistic integrity. He was very much looking forward to capitalizing on the Star Wars craze by producing a script by Dan O’Bannon called Alien, but he cut one too many corners for O’Bannon’s liking and the screenwriter ended up selling to, fittingly, 20th Century Fox. A year later, Corman would release instead Battle Beyond the Stars, a sci-fi retelling of The Seven Samurai, as his alternative Star Wars cash-in.
Possessed Of Many Options
Though The Exorcist is haled as one of the greatest and scariest horror movies of all time, the list of directors considered before William Friedkin is enough to make your head… well, you know. John Boorman (Deliverance) was initially approached, but thought the movie was too cruel towards children. He would however return to direct Exorcist II: The Heretic. Stanley Kubrick was interested, but balked when the studio wouldn’t allow him to also produce the movie. The Last Picture Show’s Peter Bogdonovich was also considered, but he too passed. Funny enough, when Morgan Creek tried to make an Exorcist prequel in 2004, they didn’t just change directors midway through, they shelved initial filmmaker Paul Schader’s version once it was completed and shot an entirely new film with Renny Harlin in charge. That’s the reason you can now track down and watch Exorcist: The Beginning and Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist.
We’re Gonna Need A Better Director
We’ve heard about Cameron almost landing a gig that ultimately went to Steven Spielberg, i.e. Jurassic Park, but what about a Spielberg film that almost went to someone else? Originally, Tootsie producer Dick Richards was set to direct the big screen adaptation of Peter Benchley’s novel Jaws. The reason for his dismissal from the project had to do with his affinity for marine mammals. He evidently wanted to change the antagonistic creature from a shark to a whale. While the parallels between Quint and Captain Ahab are striking, one could understand why the producers didn’t want to go full Melville with the film.
[Photo Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures]
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The B-movie director will produce the projects, which will begin with a new adaptation of Poe's House of Usher in 2013.
Corman tells The Hollywood Reporter, "Being able to do them in 3D with a lot of computer graphics, we can do things we never dreamed of doing before."
One big difference in the updates will be Corman's leading man - late horror icon Vincent Price starred in the original Poe films.
The filmmaker reveals he is looking to cast an actor who can offer the "sensitivity and neuroticism that Vincent was able to bring".

Title

Through his company New World Pictures, produced and distributed "Death Race 2000"

Sold New World Pictures for $16.5 million (January) which had become the largest independent production and distribution company in the US

Founded Concorde/New Horizons, a production company

First film as producer for own production company (Palo Alto), "Monster from the Ocean Floor"

Directed William Shatner in "The Intruder," based on a short story by Charles Beaumont

First film distributed by American International Pictures, "The Fast and the Furious"

Made a series of adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe stories starring Vincent Price, including "The House of Usher/The Fall of the House of Usher" (1960), "The Pit and the Pendulum" (1961), "Premature Burial" (1962), "Tales of Terror" (1962) "The Raven" (1963)

Feature directing debut (also producer), "Five Guns West"

Became story analyst for Fox

Returned to directing with the poorly received, "Frankenstein Unbound"

Retired from directing to concentrate on production and distribution through his company New World Pictures

First film as co-producer (also co-story), "Highway Dragnet"

Directed the original version of "The Little Shop of Horrors" in only two days

Joined 20th Century-Fox as messenger

Acted in Francis Ford Coppola's "The Godfather Part II" as one of the senators on the congressional committee

Summary

Ever since the early 1950s, famed indie producer and sometime director Roger Corman churned out hundreds of low-budget genre flicks - many of which were suspect for both artistry and taste - while revolutionizing the way films were made and distributed. Working outside the studio system, Corman established a record as one of the most commercially successful filmmakers in Hollywood history, having had about 90 percent of his films turn a profit. Though he had made over 200 films in his career, there were a few that stood out as classics of their genre, including "Not of This Earth" (1957), "The Little Shop of Horrors" (1960), "The Raven" (1963), "Death Race 2000" (1975) and "Battle Beyond the Stars" (1980). Perhaps more important than being a success himself, Corman was singlehandedly responsible for launching numerous Hollywood careers, boasting some of the biggest names of the latter half of the 20th century as his protégés - Jack Nicholson, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Jonathan Demme, Joe Dante, Ron Howard, Peter Bogdanovich, John Sayles, Curtis Hanson and James Cameron, among many others, all of whom started their careers with Corman. Meanwhile, in the 1970s, he helped such foreign directors as Akira Kurosawa, Francois Truffaut and Ingmar Bergman gain a distribution foothold in the United States when no one else would take the chance. Having been one of the first producers to recognize the financial advantages of shooting in Europe while he used sets discarded from other lavish, expensive movies for his own films, it was no wonder that Corman, once dubbed the "King of the B's," had become one of the most prolific and successful producers of his day.

Name

Role

Comments

William Corman

Father

Anne Corman

Mother

Julie Corman

Wife

Gene Corman

Brother

born on September 24, 1927

Education

Name

Beverly Hills High School

Stanford University

Balliol College, Oxford University

Notes

"Art was not something I consciously aspired to create," Corman wrote in his autobiography. "My job was to be a good craftsman."---From "How I Made a Hundred Movies in Hollywood and Never Lost a Dime"